Mercedes dotales para mujeres, o los privilegios de servir en palacio (siglos xvii?xviii)

Abstract

In Spain during the Old Regime, the remuneration for services within the Court, and for the servants of the Court, was a peculiar world that operated according to particular conventions and mechanisms of specific regulation, clearly differentiated in the complex flow of exchanges that occurred continuously between the monarch and his servers around the economy of grace. One form of payment for services, almost exclusively reserved for servers in the palace, was the granting of endowment grants to women to marry suitably. It didn’t mind if they were servants of the house of the Queen, or whether they were daughters or nieces of those who held senior positions at court. So, through marriage, the monarchs provided tribunals of justice, counsellor employment and the most numerous, accountants in The Accounting Major Accounts.